Photograph
by ChloeRhiannonX
Summary: Duncan finds an old box of memories when he's cleaning out his room. He flips through his scrap book and finds some old photographs he had long forgotten memories about...Even some about a certain mocha haired girl he used to know. Can the photo's help?


**Photograph**

_**Look at this photograph  
Every time I do it makes me laugh  
how did our eyes get so red?  
And what the hell is on Joey's head?**_

Duncan Evans was cleaning out his half of the bedroom. The only reason he was doing it was because his room mate had called it a 'Toxic hazard'. Duncan wasn't usually one to listen to people when they said things like that, but he knew his roomie was right. His room was a mess. So, the nineteen-year-old cleaned out his bedroom.

By the end of it he was wiped of all energy. He couldn't even get up off the floor and climb into bed, so he just laid there, staring up at the ceiling. He turned closed his eyes and flopped his head to the side, screwing his face him as a fowl smell hit his nostrils.

"What is that?" He asked himself. He turned himself on his stomach and moved under his bed, the only place he hadn't cleaned. He found a moldy sandwich that he had lost about six months ago, still sitting under his bed. "That's disgusting!" Duncan gagged, pushing the plate out the other side of the bed, trying not to get too close to it.

Duncan tried to wiggle his way out from under his bed, but a white shoe box caught his eyes; Memories was written in black marker on the side and Duncan found himself smiling. The box contained all of Duncan's most precious childhood memories. He had totally forgotten about the box until that moment. He pulled the box out from under his bed and took off the lid. Duncan shuffled through the box, finding old bits and bobs from his past.

Right at the bottom was a photo album. He pulled it out and layed it on the floor. Just as he was picking the lid up to put it back on the box, he noticed the photograph taped the inside; Duncan and a girl when they were about seven. The girl had long brown hair that complimented her tanned skin. Her bright onyx eyes and perfect smile were lighting up the park they were in. The two were sitting on what looked to be red railings, both happy and smiling.

"Courtney." Duncan breathed out, stroking the picture with his finger. He started laughing at himself, it was just the picture. Every time he saw it, he would laugh. It was the memory of that day at the park. It was when Duncan had grazed his knee and Courtney had played doctors and nurses with him until he was better. When the two were younger, they were inseparable. They did everything together.

Looking closer at the photograph, Duncan could see the redness in Courtney's eyes. He then remembered the reason they were at the park; to cheer Courtney up. Her parents had been arguing for weeks, so Duncan's older sister took the two of them to the park. Next, Duncan noticed the black mop on top of his head, but it wasn't his hair, it was his pet tarantula, Scruffy. He took the thing everywhere with him.

_**This is where I grew up  
I think the present owner fixed it up  
I never knew we ever went without  
The second floor is hard for sneakin' out**_

That photo held amazing memories of Courtney. Duncan and Courtney had been best friends since the time they met, to the time Courtney moved in Sophomore year of High School. They had never kept in contact when she moved. But Duncan had thought about Courtney often, then, after a while, she just seemed to slip away. Courtney was nothing but a memory.

Placing the lid back on the box, Duncan opened up the photo album. On the very first two pages were photo's from the town Duncan had grown up in. It was a very scruffy place, not safe for kids at all, but he had managed. The streets were rough and he made it his mission to protect his best friend against it all, and he had till the end.

"Look at that dump." Duncan whispered to himself. He knew the people who lived there when he had were slobs, but, now, the people who lived there had done it all up. The lawn's had been trimmed, the houses painted and the mailboxes weren't crooked. The whole town had look decent by the time Duncan had left for college. Back when Duncan was a child, he never realized what he had been missing out on, it was all normal for him to grow up in a scruffy place like that.

The last picture on that page was of Duncan and his siblings outside their house. Duncan, the youngest in the family, was lying across the overgrown weeds in the garden. His three older brothers were leaning against the wall and his sister was sitting by their feet, with her legs on top of Duncan's.

Duncan reminisced on all the times he had tried sneaking out of that second floor. It hadn't been easy. The window had nothing directly below it to jump onto, so he had to climb across the ledge till he was above the door, and jump onto the garden wall, then onto the floor. Every time he did it, he feel off the wall when he'd landed, hurting himself before his night had even began.

_**This is where I went to school  
Most of the time had better things to do  
Criminal record says I broke in twice  
I must've done it half a dozen times**_

Duncan turned the page over and the next two pages were filled with school memories. Duncan instantly pointed out his high school. He'd never wanted to go and always protested to his parents. When his brother skipped classes, he wanted to tag along, but, for some reason, his sister always caught him out. Just him.

A few times Duncan had sneaked inside and graffiti the place with spray paint. That was his first criminal record, breaking into his middle school and graffiti the place. Then he got caught doing it in his freshman year of high school, too. So, on his criminal record it said he broke in twice. He hadn't. He did it at least half a dozen times after getting caught for the second time.

He had always had a thrill from breaking the law and in high school he started committing all the crimes. He did the crime, got caught, send to juvie, released and the process would start again, over and over again.

_**I wonder if it's too late  
Should I go back and try to graduate?  
Life's better now than it was back then  
If I was them, I wouldn't let me in  
Oh oh oh  
Oh god I, I**_

Duncan had never graduated at that high school. In the end he had gotten himself kicked out and sent to a high school in another town. He often wondered what his life might have been like if he had stayed in that school or if he hadn't started all the crime. It wasn't as if they would have let him back into the high school after they threw him out.

It was his brothers who got him started on the crime scene, but Courtney had always talked him out of doing all the stupid things that could have got him sent down. Then, Courtney left and he had no one to stop him. He often put the blame on Courtney, but it wasn't her fault at all. It wasn't as if she had wanted to move away, she had fought he parents for her to stay put. Being only fifteen at the time, it didn't do much.

"My life." Duncan muttered to himself. His life had been much better since high school finished nearly two years previous. College life was better for Duncan, he was a freeman. No one told him what to do and he could argue the hell out of his room mate all the time.

_**Every memory of looking out the back door  
I had the photo album spread out on my bedroom floor  
It's hard to say it  
Time to say it  
Goodbye, goodbye  
Every memory of walking out the front door  
I found the photo of the friend that I was looking for  
It's hard to say it  
Time to say it  
Goodbye, goodbye**_

The next page held the memories of inside the house. Duncan could remember looking out the back door and seeing his back garden, that he and Courtney had nicknamed the jungle. They would always play their adventure games in the jungle, pretending to be explorers. But it was just kid stuff, nothing that really mattered to Duncan.

Sitting, with his photo album spread on the bedroom floor, helped Duncan. He understood what he had left behind when he decided to grow up. He knew he had to let everything go, it was the past. He had to say goodbye, no matter how hard it was for him, he had to say it.

The next photo was of Duncan running out the front door, trying to catch the bus on time. He could remember every morning he would wake up late and rush to catch the bus to be with Courtney. They really had been inseparable at the time.

Turning the page, there were photo's of Duncan and Courtney all over the place. They were in his house, in her house, down the park, at school. There were pictures of them all over town. It brought a smile to Duncan's face as he looked back on his past with Courtney. It had been so hard for him to say goodbye to her. It was the hardest thing he had ever done. And he always regretted doing it.

_**Remember the old arcade?  
Blew every dollar that we ever made  
The cops hated us hanging out  
They said somebody went and burned it down**_

The old arcade. That was their hang out when they were younger. Every dollar they could get their hands on was blown there. Courtney, nor Duncan, ever won anything, but they enjoyed the time they spent together. The cops, Duncan's parents, hated them handing out at the arcade. Apparently it was known for people to take drugs there. It was a good thing Courtney's parents didn't know.

Recently on the news, Duncan had heard how someone burnt it down. All his precious memories of that place were gone. He only had the photographs to remember it by.

_**We used to listen to the radio  
And sing along with every song we know  
We said someday we'd find out how it feels  
To sing to more than just the steering wheel**_

One of the photo's was of Duncan and Courtney sitting in the back of a red pick-up truck. It had been Duncan's oldest brothers first veichle. The two kids had spent hours sitting in the back, the radio blasting on high. Duncan and Courtney had sang to every song they knew, dancing around like the little kids they were.

The two had made plans to become a duo when they grew up and perform all over the world. They wanted to be able to perform to a real audience, not just the steering wheel like they used to. They had always stuck by that plan, right up until high school, where Courtney decided it was just a childish fantasy.

_**Kim's the first girl I kissed  
I was so nervous that I nearly missed  
She's had a couple of kisses since then  
I haven't seen her since God knows when  
Oh oh oh  
Oh god I, I**_

Duncan turned over to the next page, he was back at middle school. The class photograph was the first one to catch his eye. He recognized everybody from his class. Him and Courtney were standing dead center in the front row. Geoff was to the side of Duncan and Bridgette to the side of Courtney. Geoff and Bridgette had been their best friends, beside each other.

It was the girl standing behind Duncan that had attracted him to the picture; Kim. She had been his first kiss. Duncan had only kissed her to make Courtney jealous, it had worked. However, he was still nervous about the kiss. It was his first, after all. He would have missed Kim's lips if she hadn't had her hands on his face.

When we got to high school, Kim had turned into the school slut. She had a different guy each week, but Duncan would always see her as his first kiss, ever when he developed his crush on Courtney.

"That's an old face." Duncan mumbled. He hadn't seen Kim in years. The two had never spoken after the kiss. They went their separate ways after high school and never looked back at each other.

_**Every memory of looking out the back door  
I had the photo album spread out on the bedroom floor  
It's hard to say it  
Time to say it  
Goodbye, goodbye  
Every memory of walking out the front door  
I found the photo of the friend that I was looking for  
It's hard to say it  
Time to say it  
Goodbye, goodbye**_

Over the page were pictures of Duncan and his family. There was actually a picture of Duncan and his sister sticking all the photo's in the album when they were younger.

"Olivia..."He whispered, sorrow in his voice. Duncan hadn't seen his sister since he was fifteen, she left the same time as Courtney had. Olivia had moved to California to start fresh, away from her family. However, she left behind her hurt youngest brother in the process. Duncan and Olivia had always been close, but she had decided she wanted to get away from everything and start her life all over again, this time with no mistakes.

Duncan could still remember when he was little and Olivia would walk through the front door after school, he would run over to her and hug her legs because that's all he could reach when he was three. There was an eleven year gap between the two, but that never stopped them from being so close. They were a close knit family.

When Olivia had left, along with Courtney, Duncan cried. He actually cried because he had lost his two bestest friends, leaving him all alone in the world. No one wanted him, no one wanted the little boy who wasn't worth the trouble he caused. Saying goodbye was the hardest thing Duncan had ever done.

_**I miss that town  
I miss the facess  
I can't believe it  
So hard to stay  
Too hard to leave it**_

Duncan was starting to miss his old life. Looking through the photo album had sparked some memories that Duncan had wanted to keep locked away. The town Duncan had grown up in had long changed and he'd moved away, but he wanted it to stay the same, the way it always had been.

He missed all the people he had grown up with. Everyone from his school, his neighbourhood, he wanted them all back. He wished he hadn't moved away for college, he wanted to have stayed in his old town. Saying goodbye to everything and everyone was hard, but he finally understood why Olivia and Courtney never returned. The world outside that small town was an amazing one, one he didn't want to leave.

_**If I could relive those days  
I know the one thing that would never change **_

Duncan smiled. He saw underneath the caption 'If I could relive those days...'.

"If I could relive those days I know the one thing that would never change." He told himself.

_**Every memory of looking out the back door  
I had the photo album spread out on my bedroom floor  
It's hard to say it  
Time to say it  
Goodbye, goodbye  
Every memory of walking out the front door  
I found the photo of the friend that I was looking for  
It's hard to say it  
Time to say it  
Goodbye, goodbye**_

Duncan would never give up the memories of the jungle. He would never let Courtney slip from his mind, she would always stay there. Olivia would still be his favorite sibling, she would stay on his mind, beside Courtney. The photo album, spread on the bedroom floor, had shown Duncan how much he had missed out on by forgetting everything from his childhood and from his past. When Duncan said goodbye to his two favorite girls, it was hard, but he knew it was time to say it. Goodbye.

All the memories of the town, of his family, they would stay with him. The only thing that meant more to him than family was Courtney, but he had always counted her as family, anyway. All the times that Olivia and Carly had walked through that front door, it was amazing how he remembered all the times.

_**Look at this photograph  
Every time I do it makes me laugh  
Every time I do it makes me...**_

Duncan shut the book and reopened the box. He placed the photo album inside and smiled as he locked away the memories. He took one last look at the photo of him and Courtney, laughing as the memories filled his mind again.

"I love you." He said to the photo, placing the lid back on the box.

"Who are you talking to?" Duncan jumped to his feet at the sound of anothers voice.

"Uh...no one, babe." He said, turning to his girlfriend in the doorway. She had tanned skin and mocha hair, her onyx eyes shone against the dim light in Duncan's bedroom.

"Really? Because it sounded like you were telling someone you loved them." She teased. She knew Duncan had been talking to the photograph, she had been watching him for the past ten minutes.

"Courtney, Princess, you know I love you and only you." He told her, grabbing her by the waist and pulling her closer to him.

"I love you, too." She planted a gentle kiss on his lips. The two may not have kept in contact after she moved, but Courtney had ended up in the same college as Duncan. It was a happily ever after, after all.

A/N: OMG! HOW LONG IS THAT?

LOL! I have been writing this for about five hours...Not straight, I did have a nap and two meals in between...LOL!

I hope you liked it :) I have put a lot of effort into this :)

I am addicted to this song, Photograph by Nickelback. It is a beautiful song, listen to it if you haven't before. :)

Also, I am sorry if I put Carly instead of Olivia at some points. In my youtube show Duncan's sister is called Carly, so I might have muddled that up :)

Thank you for reading, please review :)

Love, ChloeRhiannonX


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